Reading Rambo

For some reason, Tuesday feels rough this week. But I guarantee this will make you feel better (unless you're a heartless monster): Every time I hear this song, I grin like an idiot and sway while lip synching, for only I and the dulcet strains of celestial music from the ever-acclaimed (by me) film  Mannequin  exist. Yeah, I'm at work, but they can deal. The Night Circus  finally came in at the library, and I read the introduction expecting, I dunno, whirling sparklers to leap out of the pages and do a dance, because OMG people love this book and that's obviously the only explanation I could think of. The first few pages are interesting, and I'm expecting it to get better. SO HIGH MY EXPECTATIONS ARE. We shall see how it goes. Let's do a new thing called What Did Alice Add to Her To-Read Pile This Week? The Discovery of France, Graham Robb - I saw a real-person review (shh, it's a thing) of this and it looked good. Plus despite French lit being half my m...

I bought Catching Fire  for Kindle, because it wasn't even IN TRANSIT from the library, which means I won't get it for weeks. I'm finding myself becoming ridiculously belligerent about Peeta vs Gale, which is just silly because I've barely seen Gale so of COURSE I'm going to want Katniss to end up with Peeta. But my brain ignores this fact. "NO. I AM RIGHT AND EVERYONE ELSE IS WRONG." But, y'know, ingrained thought patterns and all. So let's talk about how Ragtime  is completely amazing and you should all read it. Daaaaaymn, E.L. Doctorow. I'm kind of a giant Broadway nerd, so in high school I was like "RAGTIIIIIIIME!" and checked out the cast recording from the library, as this was in the days before Spotify and mp3s and the like (*grumbles about kids today*). Liking it for the most part, I got the book, but being a teenage UBER-CHRISTIAN, around the 20th mention of sex I was completely disgusted and returned it unfinished. Now, of...

It's apparently Banned Books Week.  I've never gotten my knickers in a twist about banned books. I dunno, I just don't really mind. There're a ton of books out there to read, and you can TRY to ban something, but people'll get it anyway, and probably be more likely to look at it because it was banned. Soooo I don't really see the harm. Other than letting the idiots win. But those idiots aren't going to learn anyway; they'll just see themselves as martyrs up against a morally profligate age if the books remain unbanned, so let them feel that way, don't ban books, and everyone's happy. That all being said, I have indeed suffered for the cause of banned books. *looks heroic* I went to a Christian high school whose (unofficial) policy was that if anything was controversial, it was banned. I tend to be somewhat contrarian (not you, Alice!), so I was moved to extreme teenage anger anytime something new got banned. Being a Christian/Pentecostal schoo...

Hunger Games  was way better than I thought it was going to be. Because I didn't want to let myself like it, but then I did, DESPITE MYSELF. I don't even know how technically "good" it is; it's just really entertaining. Which then makes me feel a bit nasty because that's why the people at the Capitol watch the Games. For entertainment. So I'm really like the stupid Capitol people. I mean, I can live with that, this all being fictional, but I feel like it's a dirty trick on the part of the author. *shakes fist* I still thoroughly plan on reading the next two, even if I am a bit annoyed by the direction I believe it's going to take (down with the oppressive regime! let's outsmart them by being sneaky and out-of-the-box!). If anything, it's taught me that I don't care at all that girls were arguing to death about the Twilight  battle of Edward vs Jacob. Because I would engage in a lengthy debate about Peeta vs Gale, and I haven't even...

I was visiting my family peoples this weekend and thus did not check ANY blogs for like three days. So in case you're like "WHY am I getting comments today on a post from Friday? THE TIME IS PAST," that's why. I am catching up on blogs instead of reading The Hunger Games  which, y'know, I actually would very much like to do as it's at a very exciting part. But I respect you all too much. Posts cannot go commentless if I have the slightest thing to say, be it edifying or not. I hesitate to say what I'm about to say, as it necessarily puts my blog in not as stellar a light as I would at all times wish. But my friend Julie, both fortunately and unfortunately, has started a book blog. Fortunately, because it's funny and clever and contains genuine book reviews, unlike here. Unfortunately, because it's better than mine, and by me directing you to it, you will be made aware of this. I hang out with this girl fairly regularly, and I was still surprised ...

As part of  Roof Beam Reader 's TBR Pile Challenge, which I have kept up with relatively well throughout the year thus far, I'm reading Sophie's Choice . I have zero idea when I thought that would be a stellar addition to my shelf, but I asked for it for Christmas, and my at-the-time 12-year-old brother bought it for me. Yeah. Appropriate? No. Oh well. So I'm pretty near the beginning, and I have been CONFLICTED, because I hate -- HATE -- when authors use unnecessary words. Like Nabokov and his damn 'nates' in Lolita . Screw you, sir. He also FOR REAL used 'nictitate,' a word I made fun of in my high school SAT prep class because all it means is 'to wink,' only it sounds nasty. Our sample sentence in the book was "The old man was nictitating at her." Gross. Anyway, so the book is narrated by an author, a young Virginian who -- dare we guess? -- is supposed to basically be William Styron, who was born in Virginia and would've been ...

Okay, so as many of us discovered yesterday, we suck for not reading The Help . Boo us. So I propose that in the month of November, we do a group readalong of this. Look, I even made a graphic for it!: Get it? Yeah... So...I guess...Mr Linky? And I never knew that the 'leave a comment after linking' thing was automatically in it. Screw that, I don't beg for comments. So let's do this, people. Hopefully November 1st (a Tuesday) is late enough that we all have time to get it from the library, overly-checked-out though it might be. Oh, the discussions we shall have! So exciting. edit : Yes! You can "read along" with the audiobook. It's not like you'll be understanding fewer words than the people reading a paper copy.

I have missed an astonishing number of books that most people did not.  1. The Help - YES I WILL READ IT. Eventually. I got shit to do, people. Those 30 Rock  reruns aren't going to watch themselves. 2. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - I started this after buying it for Kindle, and I genuinely did like it. But then I got sidetracked and have not yet made it back. But I'm totally pro-running with the crowd so long as the crowd isn't mass-reading something idiotic *coughEatPrayLovecough* 3. The Kite Runner  - I read someone's hilarious review of this on Goodreads ( this is me, by the way ) and now I can't find it. But rest assured, they convinced me that if I read it and liked it, I was a dribbling moron. So now I cannot read it. Plus I soooo don't care about the subject matter. (*hides from thrown rocks*) ( edit:   review found ) 4. Hamlet  - Yeah. This. Like two years ago I thought 'Hey. I've never read or watched Hamlet . I me...

*stamps foot and screams*

I have read We Have Always Lived in the Castle , one of the two I chose for the RIP Challenge! First off, PENGUIN YOU WIN AT COVERS. I cannot tell you how many people who normally don't fricking care one jot as to what I'm reading have asked about this book. The cover kicks ass. It, in my opinion, still doesn't justify the $15 Penguin is apparently charging for it (I got it from the library), but still. Awesome. I haven't read The Lottery , because my high school had a substandard English dept, but I read Haunting of Hill House last year because I was told it has some ladies-liking-ladies stuff, and I'm always up for reading that, especially if written in the '50s (verboten! fun between-the-linesness!). I was disappointed in it, not only because the ladies stuff was perplexing to me, but it just felt SO VERY VAGUE. In general. Like, a fog of vagueness surrounded the entire thing, and I am only okay with that happening in Henry James' stuff, because I EXPE...

Your Move, Dickens  just posted on A Room With a View , which reminded me why I can't take any book that was made into a Merchant Ivory film seriously. Oh, French and Saunders. You are my favorite.

So, despite railing against YA book blogs, I do indeed read YA fiction. But I like to think of the YA I read as "not shitty," and therefore, it is different than what those blogs talk about. Rick Riordan: Lover of '50s toys? Last year I became a big fan of Rick Riordan. No, his prose isn't the most carefully crafted, but eh. He blends mythology into modern life really well, and he's actually much funnier than his dorky author pic would have you think (this picture makes him look like he still plays with Howdy Doody dolls). So I bought The Throne of Fire  in May (the second in The Kane Chronicles trilogy) and, as I am horrible about reading books I own, have only recently picked it up. It's Riordan's Egyptian mythology series (the other is Greek/Roman), and it's really good and I very much like it, but it's made me face some things about myself, people. Some unpleasant things. Yeah. Short sentences make better points. The book blogger's de...